Insider outsider

They skip off on a joyous journey, getting totally lost as they explore layers and layers of meaning. Others – like the poor and the unemployed in wealthy societies – are left outside … surrounded by questions, they writhe on the floor searching for meaning.

I Hit The Ground Running at Baxter was exactly this glorious ride for one of us and just plain confronting for the other. It was like we had seen two different shows. Most surprising, perhaps, is that the Peter Pan of the two found the contemporary dance and music performance developed by the Baxter and Scenkonst Sörmland of Sweden impenetrable.

Choreographer Ananda Fuchs’s description of the show invokes familiar modern touch points and divisions, “the echoing theme is the idea that the average citizen lives either on the periphery or the outside of the economic growth spiral … There seems to be a resounding sense of alienation from the mainstream … the emergence of a very fragile and often illusive sense of belonging seems to have been created…”

Whether you are a banker or a beggar, a theatre buff or a novice, you will always be outside of something.

How can you know?

Maybe you should see the show…

At least one of us thought it was beautiful and accessible, that it all made sense. A story with a beginning and an ending, a clear and beautiful narrative explaining a complex topic using just music and movement. Aah to be on the inside!

It is over in just 45 minutes and ticket prices defy economic gravity at R80.

Following its world premiere at the Baxter Flipside, I Hit the Ground Running will tour Sweden.